Thinking in and through Comparative Rhetoric and Decolonial Studies

This symposium pursues the im/possibilities of a dialectical engagement between comparative, decolonial, and global studies. It specifically asks two sets of questions. First, can comparative and decolonial studies be in dialogue; and, if so, can such a dialogue change the terms and contents of rhetorical studies for the better? What does it mean to compare with a decolonial agenda and to decolonize through comparative thinking? Second, how do we draw on and/or reconstitute comparative rhetoric and decolonial studies to reflect today’s “global” world and to contribute to better relationships of coexisting and co-becoming? In addressing the questions, the nine essays in this symposium seek “the global” as a worlding project that not only attends to local social histories of rhetoric but also unfolds in—and further destabilizes the boundaries of—the local, the regional, the national, and the transnational for an interconnective and pluriversal field of rhetorical studies.